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This paper aims to investigate the relationship between regulatory focus, performance measurement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment decisions.

Using an experimental method with a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design involving 144 participants, the data were analyzed using t-test and contrast test. In the experiment, the authors assigned participants into prevention focus or promotion focus group and complementary performance measurement or substitute performance measurement condition.

The results show that CSR investment is more preferable for managers in prevention focus instead of those in promotion focus group. Additionally, CSR investment is more preferable for managers in complementary performance measurement condition compared to those in substitute performance measurement condition. This study also provides evidence that the greatest CSR investment is reached when managers are in both prevention focus group and complementary performance measurement conditions.

Companies need to activate the prevention focus for managers to motivate CSR investment. Additionally, companies need to use complementary performance measurements, which consist of CSR measurement and financial measurements.

CSR research is dominated by theories explaining the external models which trigger companies to perform CSR. Existing research related to the internal models is limited to psychological aspects that are not directly related to company performance. This study investigates the motivational attributes that have a direct and strong influence on managers behavior. This research shows that regulatory focus is better at predicting CSR investment and is more motivational for individuals to perform well at work.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is talked about a great deal in contemporary academic as well as corporate and commercial circles. This paper argues that despite, or perhaps because of, its fashionable status, CSR is an ill‐defined concept which has consequently been interpreted and implemented in numerous different, and even conflicting, ways. It is demonstrated that currently there is no clear and unanimous definition of what CSR is, or should be. Importantly this means that there are also no clear and unanimous guidelines of how companies or private organisations should adopt CSR. The paper contends that this problem is further amplified through the lack of one single mechanism to measure a firm’s CSR performance ‐ there currently exists a multitude of different tools and strategies which pertain to serve this purpose, however, the lack of consistency or consensus between these mechanisms means that it is impossible to draw valid comparisons between the data they provide. Further, it is noted that this lack of consistency not only makes it hard to measure or compare firm’s progress, but makes it difficult for firms to know how to comply with CSR, or what it is that they should be complying with. The paper therefore argues that there is a need to develop one single standardised mechanism for measuring CSR performance so as to eliminate the current confusion and uncertainty that exists. It is contended that through a clearer picture of what is required of firms it would no longer be necessary for them to spend time and resources defining or interpreting the concept of CSR, rather they could instead focus on making valuable progress towards meeting the goals of CSR. Finally, the paper suggests that international law, and in particular human rights law, provides a strong basis from which to develop the required single, standard mechanism for measuring CSR performance.

This investigation into consumer goods manufacturing companies in Vietnam seeks to discern if such constructs as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics act as antecedents for brand performance with the mediating role of integrated performance measures.

A total of 387 responses reverted from self‐administered structured questionnaires despatched to 1,452 middle level managers were dissected via ANOVAs and structural equation modelling (SEM).

From the findings emerged the interconnections between ethics of justice and legal CSR/economic CSR. Ethics of care, on the other hand, tends to nourish ethical CSR, which in turn positively impact performance measurement integratedness. The findings also paved the path from performance measurement integratedness to high brand performance.

From the results of the study, the insight into the interconnection pattern of brand performance and its antecedents highlights the magnitude of CSR and ethics training program as well as the adoption of integrated performance metrics in optimizing brand performance in consumer goods manufacturers in the Vietnamese market.

The economic crisis has more than ever revealed the necessity for companies to extend their focus from the maximization of shareholder returns to the management of their complex stakeholder relationships including societal stakeholders. Although companies and scholars alike have been searching for adequate performance measurement systems that allow them to evaluate their relations with society, practical approaches to measure the benefits of CSR are still missing. This paper aims at filling this research gap. It proposes a measurement and a governance model to evaluate and manage the business as well as the societal benefits of CSR.

The research follows a two‐step approach. First, a measurement model is developed based on a sound theoretical analysis. It is then applied in an in‐depth case study to test its applicability to business practice.

The research finds that current measurement approaches fail to provide a practicable measurement framework, especially relating to an evaluation of individual CSR activities. Thus, a framework is developed that applies methods of investment appraisal as well as qualitative evaluation approaches to individual CSR activities. The case study offers an easy‐to‐use evaluation tool that can be directly applied by business practice.

Current research mostly focuses on quantitatively or qualitatively evaluating CSR. However, a comprehensive measurement of CSR needs to combine both. This is the focus of this paper. In addition, most measurement models focus on the business case for CSR. In this research, this perspective is complemented by proposing an evaluation from both perspectives – business and society.

The importance of board composition, especially female directors’ presence on boards, is thought to influence corporate responsibility performance, has attracted significant scholarly interest. This study aims to examine how board gender diversity (BGD) affects corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and the moderating factors that influence the relationship. There is a lack of research on the moderating indicators (variable measurement, geographic location, data sets and gender parity score) that impact the BGD and CSR relationship.

This study uses content analysis and meta-analysis to combine the findings of 44 selected papers published from 2010 to 2019, comprehensively reviewing the academic literature on gender diversity in the board composition. Independent and dependent variables are classified based on the variable measurement; this study examines the moderator indicators, such as geographical location, research data sets and gender parity score to investigate the BGD and CSR relationship.

The findings indicated a significant positive relationship between BGD and CSR performance. The meta-method results showed that the measurements of BGD and CSR limited to impact on the relationship. But a significant moderating effect of the geographical location on the BGD-CSR relationship, the BGD-CSR relationship would be stronger in the firms located in North America than firms located in Asia and other areas. Empirical results also showed a significant moderating effect of gender parity score. There would be stronger BGD-CSR relations in the firms located in the countries with higher gender parity score than the firms located in the countries with low gender parity score. This means the female status is an essential indicator of moderating the BGD-CSR relationship.

The main shortcoming is a lack of sufficient articles on the BGD-CSR relationship. In a future study, researchers may use other databases, such as Google scholar or Ebscohost, to increase the number of relevant articles. These studies would offer new insight into the meta-analysis of the relationship between the BGD and CSR. Finally, the authors identify the potential trend in future research, future research on BGD will need for standardized metrics. The Geographic location is an important indicator that will influence the female director role in CSR. A systematic measure and data of gender research are more important for study in this field.

Meta-analysis is conducted on the independent and dependent variables to examine the causality between BGD and CSR performance, which could better explore diversity among different countries’ boards and, more generally, to investigate the degree to which diversity may influence CSR. Firms may try to balance the BGD to improve future development prospects. Specifically, the results of this study have important implications for corporate governance and policymakers.

First, this systematic study uses meta-analysis to combine the findings of previous research on the BGD-CSR. The current research attempts to incorporate mixed empirical results based on the different variable measurements. Second, this study develop and test a contingency model of female on boards and CSR that considers uses the geographic location factors that may enhance or diminish the influence of female on boards on CSR. Specifically, the authors examine whether and under what conditions, boards with more female directors differ for inter-country heterogeneity to which they engage in monitoring roles and are involved with strategy management.

First, this study could be the first systematic study that uses the meta-analysis to combine previous research findings on the BGD-CSR. Second, the current research attempts to incorporate mixed empirical results based on the different variable measurements. Third, this study uses the “gender parity score” to account for inter-country heterogeneity in the BGD-CSR relationship. This study also identifies the potential trend in future research.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has several dimensions that are inherently unobservable or measured with errors. Due to measurement errors of CSR proxies, regression analysis seems inappropriate for investigating the relationship between CSR and firm value. Accounting for CSR measurement errors, the purpose of this paper is to use a latent variable analysis to examine whether CSR affects firm value.

This study applies a latent variable model that directly takes into account the measurement errors of CSR proxies. Moreover, the inclusion of firm-fixed effects in the model controls for time-invariant unobservable firm-specific characteristics that may drive both CSR and firm value. CSR is measured by environmental, social, and corporate governance activities.

Based on data of US firms between 2002 and 2014, this study finds conflicting evidence of a direct association between each CSR proxy and firm value. When all CSR proxies are incorporated into a latent variable model, CSR significantly positively impacts firm value. Therefore, CSR strategies based on a single measure of CSR or the equal weighting of CSR measures tend to underestimate the influence of CSR on firm value.

Corporate managers should enhance firm value by simultaneously engaging in environmental, social, and corporate governance activities because there is a synergistic effect with firm value. Furthermore, investors who downplay CSR factors in firm valuation can lead to significant errors in making equity investment choices.

This study presents a novel examination of the price-earnings ratio in the CSR valuation by using the latent variable model with firm-fixed effects.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and quality of accounting report, especially on earnings management (EM). In addition, potential moderators of this relationship are examined.

After a comprehensive study of potential mechanisms, the authors obtain plenty of empirical results to open the black box of the link between CSR and EM. Meta-analysis is applied on 51 studies from 35 papers. Further analysis is also carried out to determine the moderating effects, such as the cultural and sample selection differences in these papers.

CSR is negatively associated with EM. In addition, this effect is moderated by cultural difference, CSR measurement, and year of sample selection.

Two patterns of the hypothesis between CSR and EM are confirmed based on agency cost theory, a theoretical shift of corporate ethics based on organizational moral perspective. Several useful suggestions are also provided for future studies on the empirical model and sample selection. Further research is necessary to clarify the agency cost behind the two theoretical patterns.

CSR is not a tool for firms to market but rather a strategy to ensure their consistency with moral principles, indicating that management should pay more attention to the potential damage of the incongruence between CSR and accounting reporting quality. CSR reporting quality remains an important issue for legislature to guarantee continued firm operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the CSR and EM link using a meta-analysis and to consider its underlying mechanism under the global environment. Previous method design and sample selection are reviewed to provide reference for future studies.

This chapter furnishes empirical evidence on CSR rating used by socially responsible investment (SRI). It analyzes data provided by CSR rating agencies as well as raw data, raw information disclosed. It thus suggests a new definition of CSR, based on the CSR measurement attempts and pitfalls generated for and by socially responsible investors.

This chapter presents two sets of empirical data analysis. The first set of data is drawn from the WBCSD best case studies from 1992 to 2005 and focuses on the good practices of companies. The aim is to analyze the motivations of companies and their set of stakeholders. The second data set is drawn from the Sustainalytics controversy database and focuses on the bad practices of companies. The aim is to analyze the set of stakeholders of companies.

The first empirical research clearly shows that the main strategic target is license to operate, including compliance. The second empirical research shows that the main stakeholder is the government. These empirical works confirm the many examples provided and the philosophical backgrounds reminded in the chapter.

This chapter also draws some conclusions on corporate social responsibility and suggest a reframing of the concept on a set of two agency relationships: shareholder–manager (for private goods) government–manager (for public goods). This enables to define the way to optimize the agency relationship according to the different conditions of information and technology, as described in the case of environmental regulation and corporate strategies (Schneider-Maunoury, 1999).

Practically this chapter incites stakeholders to focus CSR issues on public policy definition (goal setting and implementation) in order to define corporate targets to achieve. Socially responsible investors could therefore define the impact they want to finance (as it already happens for green or “social business” funds).

This scheme enables a better understanding of CSR related issues by focusing on the main players. Other stakeholders, such as NGOs and employees are considered as elements of a political process with government. This scheme identifies more clearly the pitfalls of environmental and social policies.

This chapter is a unique attempt to go beyond usual criticisms of CSR ratings and other socially responsible investment methods. Drawing the consequences of these problematic measurements of CSR enables to reframe and redefine CSR, by identifying the key players and a theoretical framework to analyze their relationships.

The purpose of this study is to provide an initial, valid and reliable measure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small companies from the theoretical perspective of the stakeholders.

To design the multi-item scale or measure a factorial analysis was used. This helped the authors develop the CSR assessment tool, measurement instrument and formalize the model connecting observable phenomena to theoretical attributes.

The results of the analysis provided a four-dimensional structure of CSR, including, employees, customers, the environment and society. Specifically, the authors concluded with an original scale of 24 validated indicators that measures CSR in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The observed results confirmed the validity of the measure proposed to evaluate the commitment of SMEs to CSR through the level of practices developed with their stakeholders.

The scale developed to assess the level of CSR practices in SMEs stands not only as a valid and reliable measure for future research studies but also as a perfect guide for SMEs managers that want to develop CSR practices in their firms.

Based on a review of previous literature that revealed a gap in the measurement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a customer perspective. The purpose of this study is to propose a multi-dimensional scale to measure customer perceptions of CSR.

Using a systematic development process, the scale items were generated through the review of CSR literature and the opinion of academic experts. The scale was validated using data collected from 393 customers of telecom industry. Data were initially subjected to exploratory factor analysis to identify the underlying scale dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis was also conducted to validate the scale, test for reliability, convergent and discriminant validity.

The resulting scale is compounded of 30 items that load on five dimensions: developmental, ethical, relationship-building, responsiveness and information-sharing responsibilities.

The proposal of reliable measurement tools for evaluating customer perceptions is especially relevant for companies because of their significant role in influencing the design and implementation of corporate actions. The multi-dimensional scale developed in this study helps scholars and practitioners to better understand customer perceptions of the CSR actions that companies implement to improve these stakeholders’ satisfaction. In doing so, the scale is especially useful for companies to measure how well they respond to customer needs in their daily routines.

There is a significant lack of research into the development of reliable and valid tools to measure CSR from a customer perspective. The contribution of this study focuses on the identification of the five dimensions that determine CSR toward customers while it also provides a detailed scale to measure customer perceptions of these CSR dimensions.